Spotlight: Dan Fricker, Shopify

This digital-marketing expert shares how small businesses can win with social media

This post was first shared on the Rogers Business Forum. To read the original blog, click here.

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I lead the social team at Shopify, and teach a course on Social Marketing at the University of Toronto. With rising interest in both, it's become increasingly clear that technology has changed how people work. Our country is made up of small businesses with more budding entrepreneurs on the way – it’s exciting to work within the SMB community and play a small part in that shift.

“In today's world, anyone truly can start and scale their own business if they leverage the right set of tools.”

I really enjoy seeing people discover what they can do for themselves.

Ambition and work ethic are table stakes with the people around me, the desire to do more than what's expected of you. The result of building something from nothing, and actually seeing it work, is reward in and of itself.

Tough to generalize – depends on the industry you're in, the audience you're going after, and what you're trying to get them to do. For SMBs in general though, Facebook over Twitter, and Instagram over Snapchat. If resources are limited as they often are, go where you can test your own tactics, not the platform's capabilities. Facebook has the most advanced self-serve social ads platform out there, and Instagram delivers high on engagement. LinkedIn should be part of the consideration set from a targeting perspective, but again it depends on your audience.